Elena Poniatowska’s most personal and ambitious novel yet

It’s 1743 and as he listens carefully to accounts of his family’s historic feats, Stanislaw journeys through a breathtaking winter landscape in the company of his mother. Her passion for Catherine the Great and the Poniatowskas’ turbulent rise to the throne of Poland are a long way behind them. Two centuries later, at the age of 10, Elena watches the snow fall in Paris for the last time. A long journey to Mexico, the homeland of her mother Paula Amor, lies ahead as they flee the war tearing Europe apart.

The first part of The Polish Lover is a fascinating journey through two different time periods: the European courts of the 18th Century and the bustling Mexico City of the 1950s with its palace intrigues, literary salons, forbidden loves and a life dedicated to writing full of intense but painful peaks and troughs.

Elena Poniatowska, winner of the 2013 Cervantes Prize, has written her most personal novel yet: intimate language and emotion come together in an epic tale of a kingdom on the cusp of disappearing. This masterpiece reaffirms the author’s extraordinary narrative talent and originality.